Webber leads the way

Friday 8 April 2011 09:42 BST

Mark Webber

Mark Webber saw his practice advantage dramatically slashed in the second session for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix, but still emerged as top dog.

Webber finished a staggering 1.6secs clear of Lewis Hamilton after the first 90-minute run at the Sepang circuit, with every other rival over two seconds off the pace of the Red Bull. The obvious conclusion was that for the majority of the field that first session was all about set-up and understanding the tyres in light of the heat and humidity Pirelli had yet to experience on their return to Formula One.

Come the conclusion to the second run, with the track temperature peaking at a scorching 47 degrees Celsius and with an air temperature of 32, Webber again topped the timesheet, but only by 0.005secs.

Sandwiched in between the duo were McLaren pair Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, the latter 0.134secs adrift of Webber.

As for the rest of the field, they were staring at a yawning gap of over a second to Webber, with Mercedes' Michael Schumacher in fifth and Felipe Massa in his Ferrari sixth, the former team-mates at the Maranello marque separated by just a thousandth of a second.

A further gap of 0.4secs followed to Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg, with fellow German Nick Heidfeld a respectable eighth in light of what unfolded for Renault in the earlier session.

After an investigation by the team, after Heidfeld and team-mate Vitaly Petrov both suffered failures that saw them lose their front-right and front-left tyres respectively, the cause was found to be an issue with the suspension uprights.

Both cars were delayed before they took to the track for the second session as the team exercised every precaution, and thankfully both emerged unscathed.

Petrov, following his third place in Australia, finished in 13th and 2.3secs off Webber. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was ninth, with the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari in 10th.